Bah! Humbug!
by kaihil lover
Summary: "I think you have a pretty good deal going on. All you have to do is sit on your throne in your hirsute and rotund glory, and listen to wishes of ungrateful, selfish kids; what have you got to lose ?" Tala paused, "Well, except your pride…" FLUFF! KaiHil


**Warning:** Long length, _major _OOCness, sappiness and cheesiness.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own **_Beyblade_**, **_Santa Clause_** or**_ Deck the_** _**halls**_.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Bah! Humbug!<em>**

_Deck the halls with boughs of holly; Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. 'Tisthe season to be jolly; Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la…Don we now our gay apparel', Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Troll the ancient Yule tide carol; Fa, la, la, la, la_

"Santa, are you listening?" Four year old Tommy asked, shaking Santa's shoulders.

Santa let out a small growl at the back of his throat.

"Ho, ho, ho! Of course, I am. And you will get all you want, you just wait." Santa said in a strained, very un-jolly sort of voice, handing Tommy a lollipop from his stash of goodies. The caroling was making Santa's head hurt; he'd been listening to it since eight in the morning.

Tommy jumped from Santa's lap and made his way through the queue of children to his mother, unaware of Santa's murderous crimson eyes glaring at him.

Another kid jumped on Santa's lap, moving a bit to adjust himself, breaking Santa from his trance.

"Ho, ho, ho," Santa said through clenched teeth, "And what do you want for Christmas this year, little one?"

"Uh," the little girl started, "I want a new doll, a new toy train, a new teddy…"

The girl continued reading out her list to the very agitated Santa, while he kept aimlessly glaring at his surroundings. Who was this Santa and why was he so engrossed with the spirit of bah and humbug? Well, he was Kai Hiwatari, captain of the Bladebreakers. Why he was here? Well, that time will tell.

Now what Santa Kai didn't notice was that across the rows of plants – which separated caroling and Santa area— near the cafeteria, a red-headed boy and a red-headed girl were standing, and while the girl kept her back turned, the boy was continuously glancing towards him and stifling his laughter, but failing miserably.

The redhead was hoping that Santa would end up catching his eye, as it would add mortification quite marvelously to Santa's painful predicament, and of course it would be huge amusement for the boy; and just his luck that as he was about to turn around, Kai caught his eye and said redhead used the opportunity to give him a cheeky grin, earning a death glare in response.

Three hours later as Kai walked out of his changing room— also identified as the broom closet of the gift shop on the main level which was packed with people due to the holiday– to go on a well deserved half-hour break, Kai saw his former captain leaning against the wall.

Kai continued heading towards the exit through the crowd of people ignoring the smirking red-head, only to be followed by him.

When Tala had caught pace with him, Kai finally resigned and asked in a stiff voice, "What do you want, Tala?"

"Oh nothing," Tala said in a very fake sweet voice, "Just hanging around the mall trying to see how _my best friend _is doing at his very _first_ job."

"Get lost, Tala," Kai snapped, resisting the overpowering urge to hurt him. "I thought you were hanging out with Julia…"

"Oh, she decided to leave early, she had to go and pick up Raul," Tala explained.

"Do you think it might have something to do with how you were paying more attention to _Santa _rather than her?" Kai asked acidly.

"Why are you so upset?" Tala asked, "If you ask me—"

"I didn't," Kai interrupted.

"Well," Tala said, offended, "Even if you _don't, I _think you have a pretty good deal going on. All you have to do is sit on your throne in your hirsute and rotund glory, and listen to wishes of ungrateful, selfish kids; what have you got to lose?" he paused, "Well, except your pride…"

"These kids don't realize how lucky they have it," Kai stated his voice disconcerted.

"Ooh, somebody's feeling a bit nostalgic about his Christmas and Santa-less childhood?" Tala chided.

Kai was _really_ beginning to see the Bah and Humbug side of Christmas. He stopped to glare at Tala and for the first time noticed the ogles being directed towards them. The two boys had been persistently ignoring all the giggling and winking being directed their way from the mall occupants, being too used to such desperate behavior to show any acknowledgement.

"What?" Tala ejaculated.

"Go annoy someone else, Tala," Kai said impassively, moving ahead.

"Annoy?" Tala asked in a mockingly hurt voice, "If I was being _annoying_, forget our teams, forget the whole of the BBA, the whole _world_ would know about you being Santa." He finished with a hmph.

_Overdramatic idiot! _Kai thought astringently.

"And _why _have you not done that? It'd not make a difference to me." Kai bluffed.

"_Ah,_" Tala began, his voice still dramatic, "but your goal is _oh_-_so_ noble, how could I do something to discourage you?"

Kai shrugged. "I'm doing a favor for a friend, and there happen to be no other way to do it."

"Ah, but it is oh-so sickeningly romantic," Tala said, sounding chipper happy.

Kai's face almost lost its impassive mask at Tala's words.

"I could have never even imagined you, _you _of all people to be so compassionate."

"How'd you find out?" Kai asked.

"Elementary, my dear friend," Tala started, "The store manager provided very interesting information about the payment of the _Santa _and after that it was not hard to figure whom you'd want it for."

Kai did not answer.

"I knew it from the minute I saw you sneaking to the mall and resuming your post as Santa that it_must_have something to do with Hilary."

"You should really stop stalking me, Tala." Kai snapped.

Tala ignored his words. "All these efforts and all these blows to your pride just to get a stupid brooch that Hilary wanted, oh you are better than Romeo. Favor for a friend? Right! And Dranzer's a turkey."

Kai's impassive face was now wearing a scowl, but he was determined to ignore Tala's words. Even if he did know, there was no reason to give him of satisfaction of having irked him.

"Question: how did you know she wanted that?"

Kai remained silent.

"Oh c'mon," Tala pleaded, "I already know everything. You _know _I am not gonna tell. And why would I try to ruin your plan? Heck, Hilary might actually realize how much you like her by this, 'cause you seem to be too dense to tell her."

"First, Hilary is just a friend to whom I'm doing a favor, you know, Christmas spirit, nothing else!" Kai said in a firm voice. "Second, if you must know, I accompanied her here when she was doing her Christmas shopping and she happened to mention that she liked the damn thing and it was not on sale."

"And you couldn't stand to see her upset," Tala stated his conclusion. "How sweet!"

Tala had not found Kai's answer the slight been informative, he had already thought that it have must have been something of this sort. Oh, how entertaining this whole thing was. Teasing Kai about Hilary had always been a favorite past time of Tala, but Kai had never given ground to Tala for his teasing; this Santa thing was a goldmine.

"Friend," said Kai through clenched teeth as though it explained everything.

"Your grandfather would have a heart attack seeing how soft you've turned." Tala stated in an amused voice.

They were approaching the exit now, and Kai stopped to look at Tala.

"Be amused, enjoy this all you want, but mark my words," he paused, his tone threatening, "If Hilary finds out about this, you're going to be returning to Russia in a body bag."

With that Kai walked out the sliding doors leaving behind an amused and grinning Tala, but even he knew that if Hilary found out about this he would be near as dead, 'cause Kai was very_ as Tala had learnt through the course of the past four years since he had met Hilary_ guarded about his crush on the said girl and wished to keep it a secret.

_**On the other side of the town…**_

Hilary Tachibana made her way inside the Granger dojo and, taking off her jacket, ran her hands through her hair. It had begun to snow half way through her journey and her hair had gotten covered with it. She looked around the dojo and was not shocked at all to see none of the guys there. She stomped her foot on the wooden floor in indignation and thought, _typical!_

It had been the same since the past two weeks ever since all the teams had come over to Japan as Mr. Dickenson had decided to hold a reunion party. When Hilary had heard of this she had been excited at the idea, but it turned out that with all the teams over, she barely had time to spend with her team. Tyson and Daichi were spending all their time chewing down gourmet food in the Majestics' kitchen, Ray was spending all his time with the White Tigers, Max was with Mariam and Kenny was with Emily.

She had expected at least Kai to have been there for company— well company in the sense that at least his presence would be there— but no, he too had decided to ditch her a couple of days after the arrival of all the teams. She thought that maybe she had gone too far by asking him to accompany her to her Christmas shopping trip… but he hadn't been reluctant to go. She was definitely curious about where he had been all this time. At first she thought he might be spending time with the Blitzkrieg Boys, but she had asked Tala and he had – with an annoyingly huge smirk—said that he had been thinking that Kai wasn't spending time with them because he was spending all his time with _her_.

Hilary really wanted to know where he was, not just because she had thought of him to be her last life line in this season of boredom, but because she was just curious… She didn't like not knowing! Kai usually told her where he was going, and when he didn't, she knew where to find him. She knew most of the isolated nooks and crannies of the city thanks to him, because he was always in one of them. This time she couldn't find him anywhere, though. She didn't want to seem desperate by asking, and she knew that if he wanted to tell, he would have told her himself… and that meant that he was not going to even if she asked.

To top it all off, owing to the Christmas party, her life was even more miserable because she had to handle all the arrangements. She had been working for Mr. Dickenson as the 'Teams Representative' for the past two years. It was no official post, but Mr. Dickenson needed someone to handle things which involved a kids' point of view and Hilary had always been helping him out, so he finally decided to officially hire her.

She managed a lot of things; where the teams would be staying, which teams would be staying in the same hotel (In case they didn't murder each other); handling press conferences with the media, as Mr. Dickenson would very easily get intimidated by the discriminating questions of the press, clearing all the scandals about the teams, managing rookie tournaments of the city and –of course— managing parties which were most likely to end up in disasters…like this one. To think of it, her duties had tremendously increased from just 'helping out' ever since she turned into an official BBA employee.

Of course, many of the BBA employs were helping her, but she was in charge and everything was getting over her head. The teams were not to be the only ones invited, but Beyblade merchandise companies, affiliates of the sports, sponsors, and companies involved with the BBA… In all, it was going to be a huge event and it was draining the life out of her.

To add more to her mental strain her gift shopping was still not done. With all the teams being there in Japan, she had to buy a gift for _each and everyone_. And unlike Tyson, who was inconsiderate enough to have decided to give everyone autographed photos of _himself_, she was buying gifts which the receiver would actually like. She knew this whole mess would happen, but she had expected her friends –specifically Kai– to be there for her, not avoid her as if she had some incurable disease.

Yes, she was really beginning to see the Bah and Humbug side of Christmas.

"Yo, home girl," Grandpa Granger said, walking out of the kitchen dressed in a green sweater with a large picture on it and holding a cup of eggnog in his hand. "Why so glum?"

"Hey Grandps," Hilary smiled, "Any idea where the boys are?"

"Tyson and Daichi are somewhere with those European boys, Ray went with Mariah, Max with Mariam," He paused to think, "Kenny went with Max, and Kai, well, who knows where that boy ever is?"

"Right," Hilary sighed.

"Eggnog?" Grandpa asked, raising his cup.

"Nah," Hilary denied, "I was just heading out again, just came to see if I could catch Kai– well, I better head out… later, Grandpa."

"Bye, dear," Grandpa Granger shouted after her.

_**A few hours later…**_

Hilary was walking out of a caterer shop, ready to go back to the dojo for a nice nap, when she heard a very familiar voice call out her name.

"Hilary, _Hilary_," Tala yelled. He was pacing towards her, a fishing rod that had a branch of mistletoe in place of the bait, held tightly in his hands.

Hilary groaned but stopped, she was not in the mood for the Russian's idiocy.

"Hi, Tala," Hilary smiled.

"Hello, Hilary," Tala replied innocently, walking faster to keep up with Hilary, the reel of his fishing rod flowing ahead of them.

Hilary stared at the pole wearily, and though she knew she'd regret asking, she asked, "What's up with the mistletoe?"

Tala smirked proudly, "I've been using it on people who really need it."

"Don't tell me you used this on Julia and yourself." Hilary groaned.

"Do I look like an idiot? Wait, don't answer that. No, of course I didn't. But in the course of the past five days that I have owned this marvelous invention," he paused, "I have used it on: Ray and Mariah, Max and Mariam, Mathilda and Miguel, Emily and Kenny, Tyson and that girl from his Chemistry class, Spencer and Arisha, she's a girl Spencer apparently knew in the abbey, and mind you, we never knew about him knowing her, which really makes me wonder. Anyways, who else? Yeah, Daichi and Ming-Ming–"

"Did Daichi not die?" Hilary asked in shock.

"Oh, I wanted revenge on the little midget!" Tala answered.

Hilary let out a laugh.

"Now forget about them, who else did I use this on? Yes, Salima and Kane, King and Queen, and of course, Max's mom and dad." He finished with a triumphant grin.

"You used it on Max's parents?" Hilary practically shouted.

"The blond witch gave her ex-husband a peck on the cheek," Tala told her, "This has been really worth the 200 rubles I spent on it."

"Is there any female in the whole of BBA you spared?" Hilary asked absentmindedly.

"There is." Tala smirked.

"Who?" Hilary asked without considering the question. "Oh, right, _me_– don't even think about anything, Tala!"

"Why not? I've been saving you for last, for the eve before Christmas."

"Wouldn't it be more sensible to spend the _eve before Christmas _with Julia?"

"Leave _my _love life to_ me_." Tala snapped peevishly.

"Besides, who are you gonna get with me under the mistletoe? There is absolutely no one I like." Hilary lied.

"Liar," Tala snapped, "And who says I'll get you under here with someone you like? I might, with someone who likes _you_. Maybe Enrique? He's always had a crush on you."

"One of my teammates is gonna end up killing Enrique _and_ you, do it if you want though," Hilary said with an exultant smile.

Realization dawned on the Russian, along with an image of Kai's outraged face watching Enrique kiss Hilary and him knowing that Tala was the cause of it. Then again he wasn't going to let that git kiss Hilary anyway, and more importantly the plan was to get Kai together with Hilary.

"Fair point."

"I thought so too."

"Then how about someone you like, who likes you, and someone your team will approve of?"

"No one," Hilary replied instantly.

"Yes, there is." Tala said, his voice challenging.

"No, Tala, there isn't." Hilary said; dropping the change she had in a cauldron set up for collection of money for charity.

"Where's Kai?" Tala asked abruptly.

"Kai?" Hilary repeated.

"Yes," Tala answered, "Blue haired, always in a grumpy mood, blue triangles, boy who you have a crush on; all of that ring a bell?"

"Tala Ivanov," Hilary said pointing at him accusingly, "If you think of doing something like what I think you're thinking of doing, you're gonna get back to Russia in a body bag."

_Why do people keep saying that to me, today? _Tala yelled mentally. _The things I do for my ungrateful and romantically retarded friends!_

"You have _no _right to tell me what to do or what not to do," Tala answered simply in a sing song voice. "Wait for a second."

He walked over to a middle school girl and boy who were walking hand in hand, and stood behind them with the mistletoe hanging over their heads. The girl pecked the boy on his check and turned around and gave Tala a smile probably not recognizing who he actually was. And with a triumphant smile gracing his lips and a twinkle in his aquamarine eyes, he walked back to Hilary who was just shaking her head.

"Why are you trying to make things awkward between me and Kai? First of all, he'll just snort and walk away, making things horrible awkward for us. And even if you're planning on doing something crude, like pushing me onto him (Tala let out an accusatory _hey._) it'll only make things even more horribly awkward between us. What'll be the gain?"

"Melodramatic much?" Tala rolled his eyes.

"No," Hilary snapped, "factual."

"You're in denial, and so is Kai," Tala said simply.

"And you're thickheaded and nosy," Hilary snapped.

"Guilty as charged," Tala smiled a happy-go-lucky smile.

After a few moments of silence, Hilary spoke up. "Have you noticed the fact that he has probably deliberately been ignoring me?"

"Ooh, somebody's jealous…" Tala sang.

"I'm not jealous," Hilary snapped.

"Slightly envious, a bit annoyed and faintly upset?" Tala suggested.

Hilary's face answered yes, but instead she said seriously, "Tala, what is wrong with you?"

"Well, Hils, living in the abbey there are only two ways to go: become a grouchy douchebag like your dear Kai or become a jolly fellow like me, and I like the way I turned out, more than how Kai did." Tala explained.

Hilary rolled her eyes.

They had finally reached the BBA headquarters and Hilary turned to face Tala. "Listen Cupid, for God's sake, please don't interfere with my life…"

"Trust me, I won't do anything I'd end up regretting," Tala told her in a reassuring voice.

"You won't, but _I_ might," Hilary sighed.

"Relax, and go," He said giving Hilary a push towards the entrance. "Forget about this whole conversation, I won't do anything."

_Like I'm going to do something to ruin her relationship with Kai, yeah right!_

"But Tala," Hilary protested.

"No, _but Tala_, just go," He continued pushing her till she was passed through the sliding doors and was inside the building.

With a last weary glance at the smirking Tala Hilary made her way inside.

_**A few days later…**_

The next few days went the same with the Bladebreakers hanging out with their friends from out of town, Tala fulfilling his self-assigned duties as the BBA cupid or stalking Hilary or Kai, Kai working as Santa and Hilary getting everything ready for the party.

Hilary was done with the days work and had decided to head for the mall to finish her shopping. The days were getting more and more boring. All her friends from the BBA were spending their Christmas time with their boyfriends and girlfriends, and she was totally left alone! She had expected Kai to be there for company— well, as much company he could provide— but she was beginning to think that he was secretly dating someone. When Tala had heard of this thought, he had not been hesitant to state that she was jealous, which she had finally admitted —not to Tala— to herself that she was.

She had thought of hanging out with her classmates, but as expected, that hadn't gone well. She went to a sleepover where some of her closest school friends were going to come, but all they wanted to do was talk about the Bladebreakers, and if not them some other famous bladers. They had finally got an opportunity to catch Hilary alone and all they wanted to do was talk about the boys. Hilary was at breaking point with all their questions, which started from each blader's favorite color to what sized underwear did they wear! Hilary was, to say the least, frustrated when she had gotten back to the dojo the next morning.

So now she was here _all alone _shopping for her so-called friends. She could have again asked her classmates, but that would have again led to a very detailed discussion about one of the Bladebreakers–probably Kai– and she was in no mood for it.

An hour later, she had cut of quite a number of names off of her list of people she had to buy gifts for. She had gotten a pack of Ray's favorite shampoos and conditioners for him, a singing doll of Ming-Ming for Kenny, a sweater that she knew Mariam wanted to buy for herself, Johnny, a new tennis racket and Tala a copy of How to Stop Being an Idiot. She felt rather satisfied with her gift for the redhead, she had gone to the bookstore to get a gift for Emily; she hadn't expected to find one for Tala! She felt very triumphant.

She was making her way to the coffee shop when she saw the mall Santa crowded by a whole bunch of midgets. She loved Christmas and Santa, but she couldn't help but feel a grudge against the old man, despite him being non-existent, for never granting her wish. She had never been naughty in her life, well except the few times she hid Tyson's food, but still, she did not deserve to be shunned by Santa. Despite obviously knowing that the supposed Santa in front of her was probably some kid, she made her way towards the line in front of him.

Santa a.k.a. Kai nearly choked on his spit when he saw who was standing in the queue in front of him.

"Santa, are you listening?" whined the little boy on his lap snapping him out of his trance.

His mind kept racing; thinking about what to do through the time the other kids had their turn. If Hilary looked into his eyes, she was definitely going to recognize her. Then what was he going to say?

He couldn't say that he needed the money; she wouldn't buy that. And she knew that he knew that she wanted that brooch; she was a smart girl and it wouldn't be hard for her to figure out why he did this. When he was gonna give her the thing as her present, he had intended on smoothly lying that he had bought it, made the damn store owner such a large amount of money that he couldn't resist. Neither would that show a large-amount of effort on his part so that Hilary would know about his infatuation with her, nor would it show such less effort that she'd think he didn't care about her at all.

Besides, his story would be half true, he _did _offer the store owner a lot of money, but he just straight on refused. Sad…

Yes, he was definitely going to have to avoid eye contact and speak in such a jolly voice that she could never imagine it to be his.

Finally the last kid in front of Hilary got off. Hilary climbed up onto Santa's…err … Kai's lap, and kept wiggling for a few moments to make herself comfortable, this was making Kai extremely _un_comfortable and his cheeks– under his white beard– were flushing.

"And your name is?" Kai said, straining to make his voice unrecognizable, and keeping his eyes down.

"Hilary," Hilary said, her voice dangerously calm.

"And what do you want, my dear?"

"Santa," said Hilary, her voice a severely low growl, "I've been asking you for the same thing for four years!"

"And what was that my dear?" Kai asked with a pathetically jolly voice, "A new doll maybe? A new beyblade?"

"To get me a decent answer about whether Kai God-damned Hiwatari likes me or not! At times it seems like he does, but half the time he's ignoring me like I don't even exist!"

Her voice had reached a high pitch and Kai flinched at the sound, but he said nothing. His mind seemed to have gone numb from what he had just heard; Hilary liked him. He found the revelation enthralling, yet horrifying. Rejection wasn't the only reason he didn't want to confess his affection for Hilary. He didn't consider himself to be the best person for her, he was Kai; he wasn't good with people especially not with emotions, though he reminded himself that he had been friends with the girl for five years and she never been harmed due to him. And Hilary knew everything about him and his past, more so than most people, if she was concerned with all of that she wouldn't have been upset about him supposedly not liking her, though he could get where the girl might have gotten the notion. He had tried very hard the past few years to hide his feelings.

All the kids and parents in line were staring at Hilary weirdly. If an eighteen year old sitting on Santa's lap wasn't odd enough, her shrieking sure was.

Hilary continued. "If he gives me a straight yes or no answer, at least I move on with my life and get rid of all this confusion and doubt!"

Hilary finished her rant and continued sitting on Kai… err… Santa's lap with her hands folded on her chest and her eyes glaring at him.

"Err…" Santa… Kai hesitated before continuing, being well aware than the usual mall Santa of the anger of the _child _in his lap. "Are you sure it's not because you're not in the nice list, maybe?"

"Not in the nice list?" Hilary yelled; her eyes wide, "Would I be putting up with a jerk like Kai for 5 years if _I wasn't _nice."

She had forgotten by now that she was talking not to the actual Santa, but a mall employee.

"I'll see what I can do this year," Kai said in hope of calming her. "How about you have a lollipop in the mean time?"

He handed her one from the huge sack beside him.

"Hmph," Hilary growled. "Thank you."

With that, she left and stalked off towards the escalators, leaving Kai staring at her retreating back, amused by her anger and astounded by her reasons for it. Maybe the two of them actually had a chance together. _Maybe…_

_**A few more days later…**_

It was after midnight and the Bladebreakers had gotten back from a day of holiday enjoyment and were all in the common room discussing that day. Hilary was in the kitchen sitting on the round table which had a mountain of papers and files on it. Her eggnog –which Grandpa had given her half-an-hour ago– remained untouched. She was continuously on phone calls, and when not, she picked up the papers in her hand and stared at them frantically.

After she had made the last phone call of the day, she slammed her head on the table. That very second her head hit the table, the back door opened and Kai entered. It was about 1 a.m. and he had just gotten off duty. Due to the Christmas holidays, the malls were open till very late and thus, Kai had to stay. He did not voice his curiosity. He walked over and sat at the chair closest to her, he kept his hand on her head.

Hilary looked up at Kai; her eyes seemed to be red with lack of sleep.

"'Nog?" she muttered sleepily, she glanced towards her untouched cup, which still had some steam coming out of it.

Kai stared at her strangely. "Sure."

Hilary handed him her cup. She kept yawning and straining to keep herself up.

"Hilary," said Kai, taking a sip of the warm liquid, his voice in her half unconscious state sounded slightly husky. (AN: I couldn't help, but lol at this. Sorry. XD) She couldn't help feel appalled when she realized was she was thinking. She couldn't be turning into a fan girl, could she? She shuddered at the thought.

"Maybe you should get some sleep."

"Mmmm," Hilary said in her dazed state, she had forgotten her previously repulsed thoughts. She wasn't even aware that she had poured her heart out to the blue haired bishounen, who –much to everyone's expectations– wholeheartedly felt the same way about her. If only they would tell each other about their infatuations on purpose.

"Hilary, you've been overexerting yourself, go to bed," Kai's voice got a bit authoritative, he knew she was putting too much stress on herself and was bound to snap.

"Why do you care?" Hilary said, anger still evident in her tone despite the drowsiness.

Kai glared at her, not understanding. Surely the girl, at least, knew that he liked her as a very close friend if not more. That was very obvious even according to _him_.

"Well, if you cared," Hilary zoned out for a second, "You wouldn't have spent the last few weeks ignoring me, after knowing that everyone else is going to be busy."

She glared at him.

Kai felt outraged. All this time he had been suffering with those kindergarten and elementary school midgets for _her_, and she was yelling at him? He knew that she didn't know that, but he still couldn't help feel resentful. How could she doubt him? Without a word a he stood up and walked out of the kitchen.

He entered the hall, and saw everyone– even Kenny –smirking at him. Apparently, they had noticed that he was alone with Hilary for quite a bit period of time. The two of them often spent a lot of time together, but the knowing smirks _still _hadn't stopped.

"Kon," Kai said in an ordering voice, the smirk on Ray's face immediately got wiped off. "Get _her _to go to bed before she collapses in the kitchen."

With that Kai again made his way out of the house, leaving the Bladebreakers looking at each other in incomprehension.

_**On Christmas Eve…**_

She had expected to be spending her Christmas Eve with Grandpa Granger, but it turned out that he decided to bail on her too, as he unexpectedly had gotten himself a date.

_Great_! Hilary had thought when the old man had told her that he would be going out on Christmas Eve. _Even Grandpa has a date!_

It wasn't as if she couldn't get a date, there were a million guys who'd love to go out with her (Enrique first in line), but then again there was the Kai thing. She was beginning to think that she was getting way too desperate, but she just couldn't think of any other guy in that way anymore!

_Curse the Russian for being so damn irresistible!_

Hilary was still mad at him about that little argument they had had the other night, and they hadn't been on speaking terms since then, but she felt as if she had been out of line. It wasn't his duty to accompany her when she was lonely, though she always tried to when he was. And she was still quite thoroughly convinced of the existence his secret girlfriend.

So while Kai –according to Hilary– was going to be spending his Christmas Eve with his girlfriend, she was going to spending it alone in the dojo watching Christmas specials on T.V.

_How exciting!_

But luckily –or unluckily, one can't be sure– Tala had called in on Hilary and asked her to, in his own words,_ "Get your ass down to the mall coffee shop at 9:30."_

She knew that with what Tala had planned about her and Kai–and even if he hadn't– Tala's invitations wasn't ever really safe; it was best to graciously deny, but then again she sure had nothing better to do. So she decided that she would take a risk and go anyways. Her relationship with Kai recently started to feel doomed on its own without any… *cough* help *cough* from Tala.

Why was she waiting there even though it had been two hours? Well, she had nothing better to do. Here she had a nice view at least. Besides being in front of the mall Santa made cursing him all the more easier; he was one of the two targets of her swearing and cursing, the other being well… Kai. Unbeknownst to her, the mall Santa –whom she had began to resent ever since she had met Kai– and Kai himself were the same people… at least this year they were.

On the other side of the level –in front of a ramen shop, concealed from Hilary's view– sat Tala and Julia, the latter in a very sour mood. Ever since she had landed in Japan, the only place she had been to with Tala was this very floor of this very mall with Tala staring at Santa. At times she thought he had been sticking his tongue out at him. And now when she had two days left before leaving, Tala was still ignoring her _ and for whom: Santa Claus! She'd heard of mommy kissing Santa, but it seemed as though her boyfriend was crushing on and wanted to kiss Santa himself. She groaned mentally.

Tala knew that Hilary was easily visible from Kai's elevated position, and he also knew that Kai regretted the fight he had gotten into with her the other day. Tala also knew that seeing Hilary sitting there all alone, would make Kai feel more bad and he would give her, her gift now –instead of at the party the next day. He, Tala, knew a lot of things, and he even knew that he knew a lot of things, but the most important thing he knew now was that his life was hanging on a thread, which could snap any second.

He was hoping that he wouldn't have to need to use his faithful fishing rod, 'cause even he wasn't dumb enough not to know that ninety-nine percent chances of his ending in messing things up. And if– through some miracle– things went well, he's be dead anyways for even trying. So, he was hoping that they'd handle things on their own.

Kai had finally gotten his payment. _Fifteen_ damn hours of work for _twenty one _days for a damned brooch. He had been watching Hilary for the past two hours sitting alone at a table. At first he had thought that she was waiting for someone–a date? He had been dismayed at the thought, but then after the first hour, he had realized that if she had been stood up, why'd she been waiting for so long?

_She had been right about being all alone!_

He knew that her parents hadn't had time to visit this year, he knew that everyone –even Grandpa Granger– was going out on a date today, he also knew from her… err… confession the other day to Santa… err… him, that she apparently –to his shock –wouldn't be wanting to go out with anyone, he also knew that hanging out with her class fellows would mean an abbey-worthy interrogation about the Bladebreakers, something he had heard from her enough and had experienced first hand too.

What had happened was that Granger had decided to invite his, Kenny and Hilary's classmates to a Christmas party held at the dojo two years ago, and all that the girls had been doing was trying to urge Hilary into introducing them to their favorite Bladers. The girls had kept haunting him all night, asking to dance with them, and each time Hilary would smirk and mouth from across the room if he was having a good time.

When one black-haired girl had asked him for what he knew was the tenth time, he marched his way up to Hilary, who –much to his annoyance– was talking to a boy from her school. He had politely– or not so politely– asked him to excuse her, and dragged her to dance, saying that he couldn't suffer through one more dance invitation from one of her friends, and dancing with someone's was the only way to stop them. There had been a lot of smirks directed towards them and the girls had backed off. Well, for that particular night, at least.

Anyways, knowing all of that, he still hadn't expected her to be sitting all alone at a coffee shop surrounded by couples holding hands. He had also realized– after Tala's pointing out– that Hilary also might have been jealous by his disappearing off to be with God-knew-who. At first, the thought seemed laughable to him, but then he put himself in her shoes, and he realized that he, too, would have been jealous.

He had half an hour left till his duty ended at midnight and about 7 kids in front of him. He had the Christmas gift in his pocket; he had the girl who wanted it, the girl he had finally decided on telling that he liked in front of _him_; the idiot who wanted to witness it all. The only thing that could make this wrong was Lady Luck, who always tended to screw things up for him.

Maybe Voltaire would walk in and snatch him away to the abbey? Maybe Voltaire would show up looking like Santa, claiming to be the real deal and have him arrested for impersonating him? Okay, he was losing his mind… He needed to get this done and soon, before he lost any more IQ points.

As the clock struck twelve, the carolers' voices reached a glass shattering high pitch, Tala's anxiety reached breaking point, Julia's temper on the other hand reached boiling point, Kai's urgency to leave his position reached a new height, and Hilary's patience ran so thin that she stood up and began to march indignantly towards the exit.

Tala, who saw her walking off, looked at Kai– from whose lap the last kid was just getting off.

"Go," he mouthed, raising his hands in frustration, "Forget the damn Santa suit, and just go!"

"Who's the man under that Santa suit, Tala?" The Spanish girl asked, confused. "And wait, is that Hilary walking towards the exit?"

Tala ignored her; he just kept looking from the brunette to the blunette frantically. He cared for the two of them too much for this too end up in a mess-up, he cared for his life too much for this to screw up, and he had betted too much on Kai and Hilary becoming an official couple by this Christmas for this to blow up! Oh, if he survived he would be broke!

"Oh, my God," Julia's eyes widened as realization struck her like a ton of bricks. "That Santa is Kai isn't he? That's why you– Oh, my God!"

Kai got up from his seat, just as the last kid jumped off of him. He made his way off the raised platform and paced towards Hilary, still in his Santa suit, well- aware that if he went to change, Hilary would be long gone by then. He hated the fact that Hilary would find out about his Santa job, but it would mean that it would clear all the misunderstandings between them… she would know where had been the prior weeks, and if he was going to tell her that he liked her, she might as well know to how much trouble he'd went for her.

_The insufferable idiot still isn't running! _Tala thought viciously.

"What is wrong with him?" Julia said, grabbing Tala's hands and shaking it. "Why is he _not _running?"

Kai was just about fifteen feet behind her, when he shouted, "Hilary."

Hilary turned around at the sound of her name, the voice had sounded so familiar; she was shocked to see Santa walking towards her, apparently it was him who had called out to her. She stared at him quizzically.

"Hilary," Kai said again as he made his way towards her. "I'm… I'm really sorry about everything that happened this whole month."

"Wha–" Hilary said but before she could continue, Kai– who had walked further till he was now directly in front of her– removed his beard and hat to reveal his painted face and blue hair.

At first Hilary just wanted to laugh out, but then she remembered her little encounter with Santa the other day, and her cheeks reddened consequently. She was hoping that it might have been someone else under the Santa suit that day. Why was Kai dressed as Santa?

"Kai?" Hilary asked.

Kai sighed and walked even more closer to her.

"Hold on."

He dug into the pockets of his pants, took out a box wrapped in green paper with Hilary's name written on it and handed it to her,

"Your Christmas present," He replied to Hillary's questioning look, "I wanted to give it to you at Christmas Eve, like every year, instead of tomorrow."

_Maybe Voltaire showing up would be better?_

Hilary didn't know why he was apologizing, or why he was dressed as Santa…Confused, she opened the wrapping paper to see the same brooch she had told Kai she admired the day they'd gone Christmas shopping after which he had started rudely ignoring her. The puzzle pieces fit in her mind and she couldn't help but feel ashamed. She had just said that she liked it, and would have bought it if it had been on sale. She couldn't have expected him to go to all this trouble just for that.

A lot of people were staring their way now; if Santa following someone like that wasn't attention diverting enough, the Santa and the 'someone' were both pretty recognizable people. But both, Hilary and Kai, continued ignoring them.

"Thank you, Kai," Hilary looked up at him, embarrassment clear in her ruby-eyes. "I _am so _sorry about the other night! You were going to all that trouble for me and I was just so horrible and–"

She broke off in mid sentence and hugged Kai. It seemed very odd to her, hugging him with the layers of padding on his stomach.

They pulled away from each other as quickly as Tyson raided a kitchen and wiped it clean. Kai, realizing that he still looked the size of the actual Santa, took out the pillow from under his red shirt. This was turning into a long day.

"I'm sorry, Hilary," Kai started, running a hand through his hair. "I should have told you where I'd been going off to."

"Well, you didn't have to, you can obviously have priorities that you would not want to tell me about," Hilary mumbled. "I was just annoyed by how I had to spend the Christmas holidays doing nothing but work."

"Well, that made two of us," Kai said glancing down at his no-longer over-large tummy.

Tala wanted to groan, he couldn't hear the conversation, but by the looks of it the two of them were acting like they'd met for the first time! Julia too was getting frustrated, she knew both Kai and Hilary liked each other since she had first met them at the world champions before BEGA; it was about time they got together!

Tala picked was ready to pick his faithful fishing rod and about to run his way towards the two stubborn idiots, before they blew what might be the only chance they'd get–with how persistent they were about hiding their feelings– to tell each other how much they liked each other when Julia grabbed his hand to stop him…apparently there was no need for him to step in and intervene.

"Umm, Hils," Kai said taking hold of her right hand.

"Yeah," Hilary replied.

"I like you Hilary, have so since the time of the second world championships, I just never had the guts to tell you." Kai finished with a resigned sigh.

"Oh," Hilary said, registering his words, then a smile began to play across her lips. "Well, I'm guessing you already know that I like you, I think I shouted that loud enough for the whole mall to here the other day."

"Was that me you were talking about?" Kai asked cheekily.

"No, it was some other blue-haired sourpuss!" Hilary retorted.

Both of them couldn't help but smile.

"I think we should –eventually– thank Tala," Kai said glancing back at the two redheads.

"I suppose," Hilary grinned. "You busy tomorrow?"

"No," Kai smirked. "You?"

"No, not at all, all my work is done," Hilary stated.

Kai's grip on Hilary's hand tightened and he leaned towards her, so did Hilary, and their lips met for a brief second before both of them pulled back. In that second, they heard wolf-whistles from both Julia and Tala, even some of the guys and girls from the crowd were hooting. Hilary and Kai again ignoring them began to walk out of the mall, talking conveniently like before things got all awkward between them, about how big of a mess the holiday season had been.

As Hilary and Kai disappeared Julia began to glare at Tala.

"Well, I just saved myself a lot of money," Tala let out a sigh of relief and leaned into his chair.

"_So_," Julia said to Tala, leaning towards him a bit, "This was why we were here all the time, so you could annoy Kai?"

"Tell me if it was _not _a noble cause?" Tala asked dramatically.

"Fine, it was. But now that those two are together, can we have some time alone in which you're not eyeing someone else?"

"Is that what you _really _want to do, Julia? Is it?" Tala asked, his eyes narrowing skeptically.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Julia said in a resigned voice. "Let's go follow them; they're bound to be going at that stupid bridge where the Bladebreakers practice."

Tala stood up and extended his hand to Julia, "Shall we?"

Julia rolled her eyes, but took Tala's hand anyways. With that both of them made their way towards the exit to follow Hilary and Kai.

* * *

><p><strong>Guess who's back after more than three months of not publishing: me! XD My last publish was on the 11th of September, life got so hectic after that, it's indescribable, it started getting a bit normal after the 26th of the same month, a.k.a my bday. I finally got my board result, I got the second highest in the school, 93 percent. Woho! Seriously, they gave us our result towards the end of October, after like, six months! Our school teachers give back our papers in 1 week. I just hope I get as good a percentage this year as I did last year, 'cause my final high school percentage is gonna be the average of this percentage and the one I'll get this year... Oh brother... I think I should go and study Physics...<strong>

**I hope everyone liked this one shot, I got this idea back in August, but of course had no time to type it, my exams ended this week so I'm rather free, so I decided to type it up, I wanted to publish this on Tuesday, the anniversary of my publishing my first story on ff (Need You Now), but my dear Physics teacher decided to take our practical exam! O_o We didn't even know we were gonna have practicals. Last year our Bio and Chem teachers never took practicals, we only gave our practicals for the board exams. Yeah, so because of that I had obviously not prepared, so I couldn't get this written by Tuesday. :P Speaking of school, I have no winter break. Hurrah for me! Winter break already is for 10 days, if you think logically, 4 days are of the weekends, one day is for some politician's death anniversary, one day is for our prize distribution holiday which got cancelled due to the exams, that leaves 4 days of actual winter break, and in those 4 days we have to come to school for two and a half hours of Physics classes. WTF? Why? Because it's our last year of school. Wait, a second, 9th grade was equally as important as this year, so why are we coming this year when we didn't last year? Oh yeah, our teachers were normal last year. :P And it's only the Physics teacher of our class and the one next to us who's doing this inhumane thing, no other. Long story short, I have _oh yeah, and tyhiltwilover too has_ no winter break.**

**Thank you to those who read and reviewed by last one shot 'PS: I Love You', _sky d, Kawaii-Chibi-Kai_, _cOOlzanimeaDDict,_ _Ms. Controversy_, _tyhiltwilover,_ _Dead-by-n0w** (Thank you for your bday gift, I have the picture as my wallpaper these days. :P)**, Aquila Tempestas_ and Anime_ Onnanoko._**

****Thank you to Dead-by-n0w for beta reading this, and for making the sentences actually readable. ****

**Oh, and I'll be publishing a few drabbles (separate from KaiXHilary Drabbles) and maybe even another one shot... so those who want, can keep their eyes open for that... :)**

**I hope everyone liked this. Please review. Constructive criticism is appreciated, though flames will be used to burn my school books and notes, and since I need them for my exams in Feb. then my exams in April, I'm gonna have to buy new ones, so yeah, _don't flame, especially about the pairing, it's my choice or the OOCness, you had been warned!_**

**Later...**

**08:00 p.m. 17th December, 2011. **


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